Bits and pieces
by Eleanor Robin
Summary: A series of sketches I made a few years ago, based on the musical CATS. They cover fragments from the time when Demeter was kidnapped by Macavity – and returned, more dead than alive...
1. Rain

_A series of sketches I made a few years ago, based on the musical CATS. They cover fragments from the time when Demeter was kidnapped by Macavity – and returned, more dead than alive..._

_I thought up way more but most of it slipped away and I don't think I'm going to reconstruct it anytime soon. I know these parts leave much unsaid but it might in fact encourage your imagination._

_In any case, these pieces have been my introduction to fanfiction. Enjoy!_

*Rain*

Still the rain poured down, a grey curtain wrapping itself around till fur would have been transformed into a thick, soaked coat.  
A shadow appeared on the cardboard boxes that marked one side of the Square.  
"He's back," Alonzo announced and made his way towards the shades.  
Munkustrap was back. At last. He carried her in his arms. Gus galloped quickly to Munkustrap and within seconds Bombalurina came rushing out of the Bathtub. The three of them met and remained speechless, struck as they were by the sight of the two shades.  
Munkustrap did not move. The body in his arms did not either.  
"Is she..." Bomba's tears mingled with the raindrops on her cheeks.  
"Let me–" Gus stretched out his arms but Munkustrap, who looked two years older than before he had left, glared at him and backed away. There was no recognition in his eyes. His face, usually a light grey marked by fierce, black stripes, now resembled the mask of a white tiger. He was staggering on his feet.  
Alonzo, Bombalurina and Gus quickly exchanged some anxious glances; then Gus, pulling himself together, stepped forward and fatherly pushed Munkustrap in the direction of the Caravan.


	2. Dog

*Dog*

"Was it a dog?"  
"No, I… Yes… I don't think so."  
Once again she tried to recall his image.  
"Are there red dogs?"  
"Red?" How little she knows of the world, it flashed through Jellylorum´s mind, as she shook her head. "No, there aren't. So then it was a red cat, you say?"  
"Yes... I think so. And he was huge."  
She looked up at Jellylorum, her eyes filling up with fear again at the mere thought. She already seemed too tired to continue speaking, so Jelly soothed her and bade her to have some rest again.


	3. Search

*Search*

"It started with the last rehearsal of Gus' birthday performance. We had to practise the dance with the hats, remember? So–"  
Demeter gasped. "Gus' birthday... What became of it?" Her guilty eyes sought Bombalurina's.  
"We celebrated it modestly. He did not mind of course," she reassured her friend, "You know how he is. He could only think of you."  
Munkustrap nodded and continued his narrative.  
"Bomba and I needed you and you were not around. Jennyanydots told us she had sent you away with some laundry and you could be back any minute. So we waited. We discussed the dance, the birthday, the weather... Then Jenny became impatient too, for she needed to do some more things today, she said. And–"  
"You have a very detailed memory, Munkustrap," Bombalurina interrupted. "The only events I remember are that Deme was gone and we went searching."  
"I was getting at that." He smiled at her and resumed his story. He was building it up slowly, perhaps, Demeter thought, because he was hesitating to get to the core of it.  
"We found out nobody had seen you for about an hour and even Gus regarded it as a serious case because you never missed rehearsals, especially not such an important one as the last. So he sent four Jellicles away to search for you: Plato, Alonzo, Bombalurina and me. Despite everything, we all expected to find you within half an hour, with such an intensive search. After five minutes it began to rain. I searched all the places we knew, then all the places I thought only I knew and then all the places I didn't know. The rain kept pouring down and washed all scents away but I would not give up. I kept searching till I reached the Gate. Still I would not stop and I grew more and more anxious. Eventually I was at my wit's end because I knew the others would have found me if they had found you. Then I smelled something, a metallic scent was driven to me through the rain. Blood. I followed it and found you..."  
Now he stopped for a moment, lost in his memories.  
"You were..."  
He tried again.  
"You did not move. I tried to check your pulse and breath but I was panting and so confused I only found my own rapid beat. You were dead. I shook you and I shouted your name but my voice could not beat the raging of the rain. So I took you up and hastened towards the Square, but I had already spilled too much energy and the rain did not grand me five feet's sight, so I got completely lost. I had lost all sense of time and eventually I stumbled and fell in the mud. Only then I could cry as I held on to your frigid body. So I spilled my very last strains of energy. Then I just sat there, bent over you... and my cheek got warm. You breathed on my cheek. Needless to say that moment was..."  
He shook his head and his eyes went in all directions as if to find the words written somewhere on the wall.  
"I never felt such relief," he concluded. Bombalurina and Demeter also sighed relieved, getting rid of the tension they had listened with to his story.  
"Now I don't know how I physically have been able to do it – as I told you I had literally no energy left – but it must have been the twist in mindset, because now I knew I had to save your life. Your breathing was very irregular. Once again I took you up and bearing this new goal in mind, somehow I remembered where I was. I began walking, but the distance was far more than I estimated and from that moment my memory falls apart into just bits and pieces..."


	4. Silence

*Silence*

"Six days of silence. Those were the six most hideous days of my life, do you two realise that? It was of course not your fault... I sincerely thought I had lost my two best friends in one night."  
Munkustrap put an arm around her. "It must have been awful."  
Bombalurina smiled. "I'm not complaining. You were the ones who really suffered."


End file.
